Alumni Update
Amy Johnston Blosser, M.M. 2008, conducting grad, and member of the Switzerland Chorale group, is the National Chair for the High School Repertoire and Standards Committee of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA).
Abra Bush, D.M.A. 2003 (soprano), has accepted the position of Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs at Eastman.
Emily Butterfield, D.M.A. 2003, has secured the position of Assistant Professor of flute at Central Oklahoma University in Edmund, Oklahoma. This is a tenure track position. Emily leaves her current positions at Muskingum College and Mount Vernon College.
Mark Chaney, D.M.A. in conducting 2007, was named co-winner of the Julius Herford Award for the best doctoral research in choral music, awarded by the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA). Universities may nominate one graduate per year; a committee of choral scholars completes a blind review of submitted documents. This year, two winners were selected, the other from Indiana University. Dr. Chaney is currently a full-time church musician in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. His dissertation committee comprised Professors Apfelstadt (advisor), Atkinson, Blatti, and Ward. He will receive the Herford Award and a $1000 check at the national conference of ACDA in Oklahoma City next March.
Nicole Charles, M.M. 2008 current DMA is the new lecturer in flute at Muskingum College.
Janet Fleck, M.M. 2008, has accepted the Band Director position at Chapelgate Christian Academy in Marriottsville, Maryland.
Robert Kerr, M.M. 2004, has been a National Finalist in the Opera Index National Auditions.
Maureen McKay, M.M. 2003, performed the role of Caroline Gaines in the New York City Opera’s premier of Margaret Garner. The opera is a cllaboration between Nobel Prize-winning authot Toni Morrison and Grammy Award-winning compser Richard Danielpour and is based on Morrison’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Beloved. She also sang the soprano lead, Susanna in Cleveland Opera's production of the Marriage of Figaro.
Doug Monroe, D.M.A. 2008, won 2nd prize at the International Clarinet Association’s Research Competition.
David M. Mruzek, Music History ’96, is in his third year as assistant professor at Hanover College in southern Indiana. He directs the Hanover Concert Band, Jazz Band, and College-Community Orchestra. One of his new concert band compositions, entitled Boy Scout Centennial , was recently published by Lovebird Music of Plano, Texas. In the summer of 2010, Dr. Mruzek will again serve as the assistant director for the National Jamboree Staff Band at the National Boy Scout Jamboree at Fort A.P. Hill, Virginia.
Jennifer Packard, M.M. 2007, is the new lecturer of flute at Mt. Vernon Nazarene College.
Kathleen Sasnett, D.M.A. 2005, has been engaged to sing the title role, Elektra in Strauss' Elektra in New York City this winter with the One World Symphony Orchestra.
Stanley Schumacher, Ph.D. Music Theory, 1976, is featured as a trombonist and vocalist on the new CD release from Musikmacher Productions, Don’t Abandon Your Baby. Don’t Abandon Your Baby presents improvised contemporary art music performed by a trio consisting of trombone, violin, and string bass. The CD also introduces Dr. Schumacher’s alter ego, Professor Musikmacher, delivering an “instructive lecture.” Avant-garde and serious, Don’t Abandon Your Baby reflects the dark, subjective world of German Expressionism. For more information, sound samples, and purchase go to the following website: www.cdbaby.com/cd/ssatmne3. The CD and individual tracks are also available on iTunes.
Dan Nawrocki to Retire As Alumni Band Director
To say that Dan Nawrocki has touched thousands of lives throughout his life would be an understatement. Many of those he has touched will be attending the Reynoldsburg High School (RHS) homecoming game Friday, October 3 to pay tribute as Nawrocki directs the alumni band at half-time for one last evening. After fifty years of service to the community he will be handing off the baton. In all his years of directing the band, he has only missed one game – and technically, he didn’t really miss it. He was so ill one time in the 1960s that the school postponed the homecoming game until he could lead the band – something that would never occur today.
Nawrocki, a 1956 graduate of OSU, is also linked to the university in the following ways:
- Has consistently marched in the OSU band – as a student and then in the alumni band -- since 1952
- 1976, earned his masters degree from OSU in 18 months while teaching and directing the high school band
- Taught classes and seminars at OSU for four years and supervised student teachers including current Reynoldsburg band director
After graduating from OSU, Nawrocki taught at Amity, Ohio for three years then was asked by then superintendent Robert Heischman to come to Reynoldsburg to take over a struggling music program. At the time there was only one school for all grades – Hannah Ashton – so the band consisted of elementary students on up to high school age. That all changed as elementary schools were built and only high school students made up the band.
Along with teaching at the high school and conducting the band he always taught one elementary school band class each year. He wanted them to get the basics at a young age. OSU even filmed his elementary classes which were used for teaching at the university.
Barb Irvine Cotner learned to play the flute and piccolo (still plays at weddings) under the guidance of Mr. Nawrocki from 1975 – 1978. “He made a difference in everyone’s life. He not only challenged us to play better, but to also live our lives better. We were a very respectful and disciplined group.” She reflected on how she couldn’t wait to move up in the band chairs to learn to play better and better.
During Mr. Nawrocki’s years as the director of the Reynoldsburg band the students consistently won music contests and recognition for their professionalism. They were known throughout the state as the high school band that played as well if not better than many college bands.
One of Nawrocki’s crowning achievements came when the band won the John Philip Sousa Sudler Flag of Honor Award in the 1980s. Reynoldsburg was the first high school band in the state of Ohio to receive this prestigious award that recognizes high school bands and directors internationally. Each must have demonstrated particularly high standards of excellence in concert activities over a period of several years. The year that RHS received their award happened to also be the same year that the OSU band won the college level award. So, both presentations were made by Mr. Sudler on the same day at St. John’s Arena. Following that honor, the band was invited to perform with bands from 23 other countries to play at a festival in Austria’s Schoenbrun Palace.
Former student Cotner stated that the bands would not have survived all of the competitions and games without the special care and support they received from Mr. Nawrocki’s wife of 52 years, Dorothy. “She was always there making sure we were taken care of,” said Cotner. “So many students loved them both so much that we held a 50th wedding anniversary celebration for them in the band room years after many of us had graduated.”
Nawrocki, the son of a saxophone player who sold rags to buy his first instrument, formed his own dance band while in high school. It was at a high school dance that he met his wife Dorothy who caught the eye of every guy in the band. His wife admits to having no musical skills but considers herself to be an “educated listener”. She tears up when she thinks about all the students and the wonderful concerts the bands played. “You can’t imagine how many people would stay and listen to the band at the post game concerts,” she shared. The community was so thrilled with Nawrocki’s talents that many people came out when he formed the first community band for Reynoldsburg in the sixties.
The couple has three children who have achieved much success in their own lives. Dale plays throughout central Ohio with the popular dance band “The Swing’s the Thing” which was started by the senior Nawrocki. Their other son Mark plays drums for the rock group “Signa” and their daughter Marla, who played flute and oboe in school, works tirelessly for the State Department of Corrections.
Even though Nawrocki retired from teaching at the high school in 1986 he has managed to bring former students back to the ‘Burg for many more concerts at the homecoming half-time. We will all be sad when, as the only Reynoldsburg alumni band director for 50 years, Mr. Nawrocki raises his baton one last time.
